[Bionic]

I know about getting good tools etc on top, and Jim that has been supervising me is very hot on the need for a top class sharpening thingy (sorry, memory hopeless on names!). 

Oh doesn't turn wood but is making his own bee hives. He has just bought himself a large hardback book that is just about sharpening.    Perhaps it's a man thing 

[bloomer]

I always thought I had ok tools, then I met someone who showed me how to sharpen stuff properly, I now have much better tools :-) without buying any more :-) sharpening takes time for any tool but is well worth it!

[ellied]

I was making perfect planks on Friday   Maybe 2' long, three of them, pitch pine - 2 hours work and I wouldn't have believed the work that goes into making a flat straight piece of wood from what appeared to be a relatively flat straight piece of wood

Anyway, I now want a bigger workshop with a band saw and a lathe/thicknessy thingy machine aswell as the lathe and sharpening thingy, an extractor for the dust and a huge store for slow drying all my timber so it doesn't crack from the centre..

Next week the plan is to turn my 3 short planks, which are all now immaculate 90 degree angles and the same thickness, polished smooth grain and very professionally chalk marked into a small table of some kind - they might have been a cheese board but all that work and I thought it a good idea to add the learning of spindle turned legs before putting my lovely not yet sanded bowl on an equally lovely display table..

After that, maybe time to rip the kitchen out, I loathe it's 1972 style and all the rotten and hanging and otherwise damaged bits enough to enjoy the destruction with a large sledgehammer, and I am thinking maybe solid wood cupboard doors and natural edge wall shelves may be my long term (very long term!) goal!

Why oh why weren't girls allowed to do woodwork and mech/tech classes at school - I hated dom-sci and sewing classes with a vengeance and shelves are so much more useful than a peg bag or a pinny or a half risen, half stuck victoria sponge

[Bionic]

Definitely sounds as if you have the bug Ellie 

[Lesley Silvester]

That's what I call an addiction, Ellie.    Love the sound of your planned kitchen. I would have loved handmade wooden cupboards and doors but being someone who can't manage a handsaw, I went for a B&Q flat pack kitchen instead. 

[ellied]

I keep getting a longer shopping list, greater ambitions and need bigger and bigger shed space

Meantime today my 3 short perfect planks became one piece by means of putting holes in the sides and adding wee flattened dowel type thingies called biscuits.  I admit I got confused by the term as I had a cup of coffee at the time due to Jim leaving me unsupervised to do the last 5 holes myself, so I thought I was being treated to a digestive but sadly no   Still, the good news is my gaps and biscuits matched up perfectly well and are now reinforced with yellow glue and wedged into vices til they dry.  The table top is coming along but having seen a few more things he's made himself, my ambition levels just keep climbing

PS the kitchen plan is revised to key points with an eye to budget ie I enjoy the demolition part by doing it myself.  The counter gets saved and some nice wee holes drilled in it to become my worktop in the workshop (garage when I empty more of that into the shed which is no longer going to be for hens or, from the looks of it, for apple storage..  Then I wait til January sales and buy carcases from B&Q or similar, invest in a new upright fridge freezer and build around it - having that indoors in addition to the upright freezer in the garage will make winter evening cooking way more fun   Doors and occasional shelving (natural edge ones made by yours truly) will be added one at a time and probably cost more than 8x the commercial price but when/if I ever move they will come with me and if I die on the way I'll have them morticed into some approximation of a coffin and take them with me that way

PS i can't use a handsaw either, that's why the machinery is so fabulous, I'm not doing a lot of the physical stuff directly

 

[Bionic]

Ellie, I am envious. What you doing sounds fabulous and interesting and the bonus is that you can make some great stuff for yourself.